CARSON, California. – Almost twenty years after Red Bull started its global football project, ‘the Red Bull Way’ is a tactical part of the sport. It is played at the highest level, including by RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg in the UEFA Champions League, and has made its way across the Atlantic through various investments. It is defined by a high press, and many tasked with executing that vision have created a mix of the statement and football’s current possession-oriented stylistic trends.
Yet ‘the Red Bull way’ looks a little different in the US these days.
The New York Red Bulls, the second club in the company’s portfolio after purchasing it in 2006, reached Saturday’s MLS Cup final against the LA Galaxy in scrappy fashion. They play without the ball and absorb the other team’s pressure for much of the match, with their defense playing a leading role in their play-off run. The Red Bulls are also limited in their shots and goals off set pieces. It’s the textbook definition of winning ugly, living up to their underdog status after becoming the lowest-seeded team to reach the MLS Cup. However, to describe it as giving up ‘the Red Bull way’ is a different story.
“We all know the Red Bull way,” captain Emil Forsberg said on Thursday: “[and] how we want to play football.”
Reinventing ‘the Red Bull way’
In an effort to generate some publicity and perhaps attract clicks to their website, Red Bull jumped on the opportunity of Ralf Rangnick’s move to Manchester United in 2021. to essentially make the company’s tactical manifesto public information.
Although Rangnick was not the founder of Red Bull’s football project, he is often credited with perfecting it and laying the foundational elements that the company’s entire portfolio of clubs should, theoretically, follow. The gegenpress was at the top of the manifesto and was described as ‘a wave of relentless high pressure and intensity’, but there are many ways to interpret that. Historically, this is done by keeping the ball.
For example, Leipzig has been one of the Bundesliga’s possession leaders in recent years, while the New York team has, at least historically, had success in terms of possession. From 2015 to 2018, when then-head coach Jesse Marsch led them to two Supporters’ Shield titles and arguably the team’s greatest period of success, they were also one of the possession leaders in MLS. This season, however, new head coach Sandro Schwarz has completely abandoned that idea. They ranked second to last in the regular season in terms of possession and perhaps outdid themselves by only possessing an average of 31.3% of the ball in their four play-off games to date.
“The Red Bull way,” as the company defined it three years ago, explains this discrepancy, and they point to a quote from Ramgnick himself. “In my opinion, it is a mistake to think that you can only control the game when you have the ball. Often it is the other way around. Our research has shown that the chance of a goal decreases rapidly the longer a team has possession of the ball. .”
While the Red Bulls’ form has been all over the place this season, they appear to have perfected their approach without the ball. It is their particular interpretation of the high-pressure requirement that has actually allowed the Red Bulls to slip out of that ‘ugly’ style of the eye test.
“We feel comfortable without the ball and actually, you know what? We can control without the ball,” defenseman John Tolkin said. “If the other team passes the ball in their own defensive third for ten minutes, they don’t do anything with it. If we have a good structure, we can hold the center without the ball. For us, that’s not a problem. If we If I tell them can frustrate in that way, that’s not a problem for us. I don’t like to break down a strong team, so that’s what I mean by that and hopefully we can do that to these guys and pick up some loose balls, some loose balls. .strings and get ’em on the counter and capitalize.”
Only two of their six goals in the play-offs have come from open play, something which Tolkin, a product of the Red Bulls academy, also said does not deviate from the company’s message.
“Since I came to Red Bull, the thing that has been injected into me is that we love set pieces and over the last five years set pieces have been huge for us, especially in this post-season,” he said. “I think we won three games from set pieces and that just shows the importance of it.”
Forsberg has graduated from the possession-oriented definition of ‘the Red Bull way’ and moves to New York this year after eight years at Leipzig. He joined the German club in the lower leagues when Rangnick did and spent the last few years in the ball-loving Leipzig team. The tactical transition from Germany to the US was simple, despite the clubs’ different approaches.
“I think it was easy, to be honest,” he said. “I also think that with Sandro as a coach, and what he wants to do, I could feel that and I could take that with me because I’ve been working with some coaches for a while, so for me it wasn’t a I know what to do and if As a captain you have to take more responsibility and try to convey that on the field. Sandro is a great coach, so the message is always getting is good and we always know the game plan.”
New York is central
The New York Red Bulls have demonstrably redefined Red Bull’s football ambitions from a side project to a full-fledged operation. It was the second club to enter the portfolio, a year after the company bought financially strapped Salzburg, but as Red Bull’s global reputation began to focus around Leipzig it was difficult to determine where the New York team would fit in. the picture fit.
Players have occasionally shuffled through the Red Bull network, most notably when U.S. men’s national team midfielder Tyler Adams developed through New York’s academy and secured a move to Leipzig in 2019. Coaches have done it too, with Marsch following up his successful stint in New York. York with an assistant role at Leipzig in 2018 and later as manager in both Salzburg and Leipzig. The move gave the impression that the New York team existed to serve its Leipzig counterpart, and the team’s mediocre form in recent years did not help. Since Marsch’s departure, the New Yorkers have not finished higher than sixth in the Eastern Conference or advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs until this year.
Although the Red Bulls entered the 2024 playoffs ranked seventh and with just one win in the previous 11, their ability to reach the MLS Cup feels like a validation of the things the team is doing. has despite their struggle, they were proven right. Head coach Schwarz has won over his players in his first year with his personal approach and clear communication, although his twist on “the Red Bull way” is not the only standout trait of the MLS Cup finalists.
Red Bull teams are almost married to their processes, and not just their tactical processes. They are rarely star-studded teams, which in some ways are rooted in finding players who are diamonds in the rough but can fit into specific tactical roles. Red Bull team squads may be younger, partly due to the physical demands of a high press, but in New York’s case this is also the result of a strong academy. The team is keen to offer opportunities to homegrown players, with seven members of the current squad having started their professional careers on homegrown deals. For them, ‘the Red Bull way’ is also uniquely a product of the area they come from.
“We all have a similar bond and that definitely balances out the team to be able to help us,” said New Jersey native and lifelong Red Bulls fan Daniel Edelman, “because us guys know Jersey football from a young age is.”
‘Jersey football’ is its own variation of ‘the Red Bull way’, Tolkin argued, and one that has been crucial to the team’s success this season.
“We have that kind of Jersey, New York grit and swag and [get] right in your face,” Tolkin said. “I know I don’t like it when guys are breathing down my neck the whole game and I think the longer we can do that in games and the more intensely we can do that in games – I I think guys don’t like that and I’ve seen it and I’ve heard it from players, so as long as we can keep that going, I think we’re in a good place. … We really played quality players this season, so we respect it [the Galaxy] But we also want to smash them and I think we’ll try to do that this weekend and that’s what we’ve done all year.”
The “Jersey football” version of “the Red Bull way” has now made the New York team the toast of Red Bull’s football lineup, perhaps for the first time since acquiring the energy drink company nearly two decades ago. Their participation in the MLS Cup for the first time since 2009 comes not only as Leipzig and Salzburg battle for form, and as Red Bull Bragantino battles to avoid relegation from Brazil’s top flight before kick-off at Dignity Health Sports Park. It also offers a chance for something that has been elusive not only for the New York team, but also for the other Red Bull teams minus Salzburg: meaningful silverware.
“That’s why I came,” Forsberg said. “I came here to win, nothing else. That’s the ultimate goal, to win. I came here to win. I can’t speak about what came before, but when I came I had one clear goal and that was win.”